Discurso Carlos González Gutiérrez, Cónsul General de México en Sacramento
Entrega del reconocimiento Ohtli a James F. Smith
Sacramento CA., 4 de mayo 2010
On behalf of the Consulate General of Mexico in Sacramento, I welcome you to this very special occasion in which we are privileged to gather, in the same room, representatives of the whole spectrum of the legal community of the Sacramento Valley.
It has been exactly one year since I arrived to Sacramento as Consul General, and from the beginning we wanted to organize an event with the legal community to strengthen relations and create new ones towards finding innovative avenues to assist the Mexican community in our jurisdiction. After all, we depend on you to fulfill our most important mandate, which is, like any other consulate of any country in the world, to protect and to assist our countrymen abroad when they are in dire straits.
We honor this mandate by interacting on a daily basis with judges, prosecutors, public defenders, advocacy organizations, attorneys and law enforcement agencies. Throughout the years, the Mexican Consulate has been able to establish a wide network of law enforcement and educational resources to assist Mexican nationals and to provide support for victims of domestic violence and trafficking, among many other services. I want to thank all of you for your intrinsic disposition to help the Mexican immigrant community in the Valley of Sacramento.
We foresee this as the first of a long series of meetings to find common projects, recognize outstanding efforts and launch new initiatives.
Tonight, we are honoring a highly respected professor and advocate for the protection of immigrant rights in California. We honor him for his distinguished academic career, his role as mentor of many well known practitioners in the field of immigration law, and his relentless commitment to help immigrants and bring awareness to their plight. As you know, the Ohtli Award is one of the highest recognitions granted by the Mexican government to persons who have dedicated most of their life and professional activity, to "open pathways" to Mexicans abroad. Ohtli is a náhuatl word that means camino or PATHWAY.”
With his work, Professor James F. Smith has marked the path to follow in the defense of the immigrant community. In a few minutes, the Honorable Cruz Reynoso, himself a former recipient of the Ohtli Award, will introduce to you tonight’s recipient.
But first I would like to take this opportunity to share with you that the Mexican Consulate has joined efforts with several institutional partners, such as the Sacramento Police Department, UC Davis School of Law and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, to develop the first stage of a permanent awareness campaign among the Mexican immigrant communities.
As you can see in the postcards given to you at the entrance, in this first effort we are reaching out to say:
- That it is better to pay your traffic ticket rather than having to face a warrant later.
- That there are consequences of violating the vehicle code, specially if you are drinking and driving.
and:
- That the members of the Police force are here to help and protect you, your family and your friends.
In these dire moments of strained emotions towards the presence of immigrants, we are called to build partnerships with all of you for the benefit of our community. Please, let us know your comments. We want to improve these materials with your feedback.
PAUSE
We strongly believe that we must work together if we really want to help our community, regardless of its origin.
Therefore, I want to end by thanking Sacramento Chief of Police, Rick Braziel, for his willingness to work with us.
We all heard him loud and clear last November when he called for a comprehensive immigration reform. As we all know, it is extremely difficult to be effective in terms of police work if you do not build first a positive relationship between the police and society. Chief Braziel knows very well that trust, not fear, is the crucial element in the relationship between the immigrant community and the police. When you ask local police to do the work of immigration authorities, not only are you taking away resources from crime fighting, but you are also encouraging immigrants to become reluctant to come forward and report crimes. As a result, society as a whole becomes less safe.
Chief Brazile: muchas gracias!!!.